Preparing a brand for its future and the unseen opportunities to remain scalable requires more than just a glimpse of trends and an annual-inflation-rate type of projection. A successful decade-down-the-road strategy continuously pulses based on enormous amounts of data, woven perfectly so it’s not only easy to digest and process, but is scythe-like in its ability to hack out a clear path.

Gongos encountered this very scenario when the insight team of an iconic brand sought to create a mosaic of what America would look like in 2020 – everything from socioeconomic strata, to population data, to the impact the millennial generation will have on the evolving family structure, and more. We identified relevant sources, mined our vast collection of data, peppered in primary research to close research gaps and, in doing so, generated an unrivaled roadmap for the team. We did so using integration and curation approaches that yielded a view into the company’s future that, if one wanted clearer an even better glimpse, they would need a time machine.

The challenge from the client was straightforward and simple – what will our future look like and how can we best bring our products to market in this new landscape? Gongos’ approach was anything but simple.

Insight Curation is the successful integration, and contextualization, of insights to ensure that clients understand the “signal” of consumer wisdom as it weeds out the “noise” generated by information overload in a way that the signal stands alone, itself a beacon of direction. Curation helps organizations see the forest for the trees. It cuts away the fat. And it is a process requiring great depth and breadth from within the client group. It requires working hypotheses to synthesize and analysis, while seeing the story ahead of you. Curation demands that we not just go deep in the hole of research, collaborating with stakeholders, brand and sales teams, retailers et. al, but to set up shop on a greater plane of insight, elevated there by constant evaluation, documentation and strategy.

“Curation is a way of making sense of the oversaturation of information and data we take in constantly,” says Amy Perifanos, Account Director & Curator for Gongos. “It is an artful synthesis and socialization of consumer insights to ensure that organizations embrace the signal of consumer wisdom woven among the noise generated by information overload.”

And it’s there, on that plane, where we can see the signals amid the data static, and can deftly place it in front of the client, free from distraction and rich in content. We painted a picture of what 2020 is going to look through their lens. And the results have opened up new paths for how the organization thinks about exploring the future.

With Insight Curation as the engine, our team generated an unrivaled mural of market relevance for 2020. Yes, Curation yielded a wealth of significant data, information like: the nation’s population will shift from the coasts to the Heartland over the next several decades; by 2028, women will wield a new sort of purchase power over men; and the nation in general will see a shift in mindsets on everything from embracing technology, to who does the shopping in the house, to further acceptance of same-sex couples. This information is merely a few crumbs to the blue-ribbon cake that Curation baked.

The outcome to this vast, thorough and, more importantly, progressive approach to consumer intelligence are tools for the client to not only target future markets, structure product development or identify new, key segments, but to be in the future while remaining in the present.

The manufacturer now has a ticket to its future, what the mainstream mindset will be, how households will be structured, what communities will look like (racially, socioeconomically) and how classes will shift. And with this broad view, this manufacturer can effectively leverage its product showcase into a scalable, successful model.

“Curation is a way of making sense of the oversaturation of information and data we take in constantly.”